First shot at a Forcemaster

[DaveW]

I've only ever seen Forcemasters played very aggressively. Something along the lines of turn one Cheetah Speed and reveal with double move and either Battle Forge or some equipment or enchantment to help in melee. Then on turn two or three (depending on intiative order), the Forcemaster would likely have Wall of Thorns and Force Push set up if the opponent hasn't donned any armor, or start beating with Galvitar around that turn if they have.

I thought I might try to find something more interesting and a little different. Since this is my first attempt to put together a Forcemaster book (which I haven't tried yet), I thought I'd see what others thought about it.

Notes:

At one point, I had a Gorgon Archer in the book, but I replaced it (and the Eagle Wings for it) with three Thoughtspores and a number of extras.

My personal concerns are 1) that perhaps I have too many Incantations and (especially) Enchantments, and 2) perhaps I won't have enough mana.

The spells that I am considering for the Thoughspores depend a little on the opponent... a pair of Acid Balls and a Minor Heal or Purify against a Necro perhaps, maybe one would have a Dispel against a Wizard or Beastmaster, but more generally they would have Power Strike, Minor Heal, and Disarm (especially for use against wands and weapons with Reach that I don't have time to dissolve properly).

My philosophy on armor: I can put in a Storm Drake Hide and a Dragonscale Hauberk for four spellbook points, like I do for many of my books... thereby having the -2 modifier for Fire or Air as desired. However, I was thinking that it might be better to spend only three spellbook points on a Steal Equipment and take the torso armor from the opposing mage. The cost is the same as dissolving the other armor and donning the appropriate armor, but these two things are essentially done in one action. Now, some mages use armor that the Forcemaster can't use, so when I can't steal it, I'll just use Rhino Hide to back up my two +1 armor pieces. Yes, I can't melee in the same turn, but you can't have everything.

Forgive my lack of a fancy preparation here, but I haven't yet figured out OCTGN, and not all of the spells are in the SBB yet... so here you go:

First Shot at Forcemaster by DaveW

6 Equipment (12 points)
1 Elemental Cloak (2)
1 Wychwood Ironvine (2)
1 Gauntlets of Strength (2)
1 Force Ring (1)
1 Galvitar (3)
1 Dancing Scimitar (2)

4 Conjurations (8 points)
1 Suppression Orb (2)
1 Hand of Bim-Shalla (2)
1 Enchanter's Wardstone (2)
1 Tanglevine (2)

3 Creature (6 points)
3 Thoughtspore (6)

8 Attack (13 points)
2x Force Hammer (4)
2x Acid Ball (4)
1x Surging Wave (2)
3x Invisible Fists (3)

20 Incantations (37 points)
1x Force Wave (1)
3x Force Push (3)
1x Steal Equipment (3)
3x Dissolve (6)
1x Seeking Dispel (2)
3x Dispel (6)
1x Teleport (4)
1x Heal (4)
1x Minor Heal (2)
1x Purify (2)
1x Power Strike (1)
1x Shift Enchantment (1)
1x Knockdown (1)
1x Disarm (1)

21 Enchantments (44 points)
1x Force Hold (2)
1x Maim Wings (2)
1x Agony (2)
1x Fumble (1)
1x Mage Bane (2)
1x Rust (2)
1x Forcefield (4)
1x Circle of Lightning (4)
1x Force Orb (1)
1x Dodge (1)
1x Arcane Ward (1)
1x Nullify (2)
1x Regrowth (2)
1x Rhino Hide (2)
1x Mongoose Agility (2)
1x Cheetah Speed (2)
1x Lion Savagery (2)
2x Bear Strength (4)
1x Vampirism (4)
1x Hawkeye (2)

Why the Hawkeye? I just think that it would be very cool to throw five-dice Fists for three mana... not to mention to help with all of the other attack spells.

Open probably with a single move and Force Ring / Galvitar to convince the critters that they need to stay away, and then bring out Thoughspores as needed while equipping and enchanting... then close some more. When things get in range attack range, start flinging attack spells... and follow up with melee.

Any constructive criticism?

Thanks,
Dave

[Puddnhead]

Hi Dave!  Glad to see more people trying out the Jedi witch!

Equipment looks sparse, but solid.  Just what you'd want with no Battleforge.  Wand of Healing might be a good way to supplement your Purify.  It also gets rid of Slams and Stuns which will be very unfortunate for you.

Point on Armors:  I like that you're trying some alternate strategy here. If you decided to revert to carrying armor yourself AND you have access to Leviathan Scale Armor (OCTGN or promo) I would highly recommend that.  Surging Wave is the win card against Aggro Forcemaster...so much so that I am contemplating running Colossus Belt and Leviathan Scale.

Conjurations:

• Suppression Orb also prevents your spores from moving without paying mana so be careful with that.
  
• I'm on the fence about the Enchanter's Wardstone.  On the one had it makes the opponent really have to think about dispelling your stuff on the other hand you are not winning the mana game until they dispel 3 times.
  
• One Tanglevine is easily managed and it might be worth saving some points in conjurations here.
  

Creatures:
Thoughtspores are cool.  Look long and hard at them and see how often you cast them as well as how long they last.  Make sure it's worth the full action to have them around for what you want them to do.

Attacks:
Solid list here.  I'm curious to see how well the fists work out for you.

Incantations:
True it is a lot of incantations. I assume the one-ofs are mostly for specific circumstances or spores.  Great choice on Steal Equipment.  Those action advantage spells are definitely worth having especially if you plan on the majority of your time using Galvitar.  I'd like to know how much use you get out of power strike.  I often feel it's not worth the action.  If you can afford to be patient a spore can use it to good effect.  It's a decent nullify finder as well, but an Ignite spore will help you more against zombies and still be able to find a Nullify.  I also haven't gotten much use out of Disarm.  I believe you can Disarm your own equipment to get rid of Corrodes.

Enchantments:
Clearly this is where you've put a lot of your focus on designing your flavor of Forcemaster.

• My one strong suggestion is to replace the Force Hold with a Force Crush.  Upkeep is nearly identical and you get damage out of it.
  
• The Arcane Ward is a good touch I might suggest putting another one in as you'll always find something to use it on.
• One thing I've noticed is that it's very hard to get Thoughtspores out after you've closed with the enemy so you may need to decide whether the Cheetah Speed is more advantageous than the spell support from spores.
  
• An enchantment that might be beneficial to find room for is Akiro's Favor because no one wants to roll all blanks.  I would take it over Agony, personally.

Anyway, those are my initial thoughts.  Good luck and may your Deflect always succeed!

[iNano78]

Thoughtspores go down quickly unless you protect them. I highly recommend Reverse Attack (x3) and Brace Yourself x2-3) to keep your opponent guessing.

Otherwise, looks pretty good - although I wonder how many matches you'll play before deciding you really do need Battle Forge to help you be less action-starved.

[Sailor Vulcan]

Steal Equipment is only useful if your opponent actually puts on an equipment you want. Often times people don't put on armor until they think they need it. So they might start attacking you and when you need more armor they won't have one for you to steal. This can be compensated for by playing very aggressively and putting the enemy Mage on the defensive, so that they will put on more armor. Unfortunately they can also use rhino hide, or barkskin in the druid's case, which means Steal Equipment isn't reliable as a way to get armor when you actually need it. It's better to use acid balls and rust for armor, and use steal equipment on something else.

Your opening is very expensive both in terms of mana and actions.

R1:Force ring+galvitar
R2:thoughtspore and maybe a gator toughness on it?
R3: thoughtspore and gator toughness again?
Except that by round 3 an aggro build is already in your face. I'm not sure you're always going to be able to summon that third spore. Not unless you want to drop the galvitar from your opening. Considering that you don't use it until much later in the game and that you probably don't need it because you have thoughtspores, dot and very cheap attack spells, you might want to think about dropping galvitar. In which case you could drop a lot of the enchantments that are meant to help your Mage melee.

If in the other hand you do want to melee and want to play more aggressively, I would say instead you should drop 2 of your 3 and spores and focus on beating down the enemy Mage with galvitar and invisible fists. (Thoughtspores don't benefit from force ring, but your Mage does.)

Alternatively, you can also just drop galvitar anyways and go for a purely invisible fist+force hammer based strategy with hawkeye, akiro's favor, force ring and two spores, one with sniper shot and the other with surging wave. Or you can just go with a single spore with knockdown. Or even no spores at all, now that I think of it. Knockdown is a great way to deal with guards that have intercept, and it costs less if cast by your Mage because of force ring. Not sure what the best way to deal with more than 1 or 2 intercepting guards is in this case. Maybe just summon another knockdown spore or something? Probably could just force pull the enemy Mage away from them. If so you'll need to reserve two dissolves for eagleclaw boots, or put dissolve on a thoughtspore, maybe.

You might also want a spore with acid ball now that I think of it.

Maybe for some matchups use acid ball spore and knockdown spore and for other matchups use sniper shot spore and dissolve spore? Or something like that.

You'd have to play with it a bit and see what works.

[Mystery]

Thoughtspores go down quickly unless you protect them. I highly recommend Reverse Attack (x3) and Brace Yourself x2-3) to keep your opponent guessing.

Otherwise, looks pretty good - although I wonder how many matches you'll play before deciding you really do need Battle Forge to help you be less action-starved.

3 reverese attacks is extremly expensive for the drawback of unavoidables included. i recomend the novice dodge more often for spores. for 2mana less it serves the same and mix with brace.

I'd take a backup of rust, and maybe even a third bear strength, if promos included critical strike!!!

You already have a ton of enchantments, i wouldnt take the whychwood ironvine, rather only or a second regrowth and if you spare the points a solid chest piece.

crush instead of hold.

What do you want to acomplish with shift enchantment?

I'd drop power strike, if at all such an incantation (you probably dont have the action) piercing strike.

no mind control? second forcefield?

As mentioned with that many enchantments i probably ditch the wardstone, your goal is to have him starved on dispels, and it is an action that you can use for something else.


Not sure about three spores, maybe 1 mage wand instead. and also if you have actions to cast the force ring in early aggro.

[Sailor Vulcan]

Thoughtspores go down quickly unless you protect them. I highly recommend Reverse Attack (x3) and Brace Yourself x2-3) to keep your opponent guessing.

Otherwise, looks pretty good - although I wonder how many matches you'll play before deciding you really do need Battle Forge to help you be less action-starved.

3 reverese attacks is extremly expensive for the drawback of unavoidables included. i recomend the novice dodge more often for spores. for 2mana less it serves the same and mix with brace.

I'd take a backup of rust, and maybe even a third bear strength, if promos included critical strike!!!

You already have a ton of enchantments, i wouldnt take the whychwood ironvine, rather only or a second regrowth and if you spare the points a solid chest piece.

crush instead of hold.

What do you want to acomplish with shift enchantment?

I'd drop power strike, if at all such an incantation (you probably dont have the action) piercing strike.

no mind control? second forcefield?

As mentioned with that many enchantments i probably ditch the wardstone, your goal is to have him starved on dispels, and it is an action that you can use for something else.


Not sure about three spores, maybe 1 mage wand instead. and also if you have actions to cast the force ring in early aggro.

On the contrary using wardstones makes it more expensive for them to destroy your enchantments, so you often won't have to include as many copies of them. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of the wardstones and there's often a point in the game where they can't afford to do what they want to do if they also dispel the enchant they want to dispel, and it's an enchant they really need to get rid of. Also, purge magic can get really really expensive when you have a wardstone or two in play.

[iNano78]

I've won matches due to a well-timed Reverse Attack.  Yes, they're susceptible to Unavoidable (e.g. Flameblast), but that's why you mix it up with Brace Yourself.  That is, if you think your opponent suspects Reverse Attack, you bait them with Brace while they'waste their Unavoidable attacks, then use the Reverse Attacks later.

2 sbp per Reverse Attack is usually easily justified, imho, but I'm no pro, so... depends on your opponent's mind reading ability.

[DaveW]

Thanks for everyone for your comments and suggestions.

Some responses (again, with the understanding that I have not actually played the book yet):

I really like the idea of swapping out the Force Hold for Force Crush. I am trying to minimize Upkeep costs, but I am more than willing to pay the four for a Crush.

If I add the Leviathan Scale armor (which I do have) and the Wand of Healing, then I feel that I need to add a Battle Forge. There was a good point that not everyone will equip an armor that I can steal, but then I also may want to use the Steal Equipment on someone's Eagleclaw Boots or a Wand or something else. So that would be eight spellbook points added. In this case I also would swap out the Ironvine for the Colossus Belt as suggested.

On Ignite vs. Acid Ball... I did think that I might include Ignite, but for a bit more mana, Acid Ball has a bit more utility, and has less of a down-side (can stack Corrodes but not Burns from Ignite, and possible Fireweaving opponent, for example).

Some enchantments that I included in the book to put on the Thoughtspores are the Arcane Ward, Dodge, and Force Orb. I was thinking about putting in a Gator Toughness for them also, but it didn't make the cut. (I might still put one in, perhaps replacing the Orb and something else.)

On numbers of Thoughtspores, I probably will drop one before testing the book. I also wonder about the ability to bring them out when needed. On facing a agro opponent, I do not see myself casting any until later in the game, if at all, anyway.

On the Suppression Orb interfering with the Thoughtspores: If I drop one, then that is one fewer that I have to concern myself with, and I feel that I can Force Pull one into position every once in a while to use an action instead of a mana if needed (with the Ring's discount, though I think this would be rare). Besides, the Orb won't come out in every match anyway.

Power Strike is mostly for Thoughtspore use. The low mana cost (net one per turn with channeling) to get two more dice on my attack seems ideal. The Minor Heal also is mostly for the Thoughtspores. I like the idea of banking healing mana and saving the action when needed.

Akiro's Favor over Agony probably is a good call. I've had so much good fortune putting Agony on Hydras and Grimson lately, I'm thinking that I'm biased. I tend to play more defensively than not, and am trying to break the habit (hence my choice of trying out the FM)... so this is a swap that I should do to break me out of my mold.

I can see that Tanglevine coming out... I play Beastmaster so much, I think it's mostly in there because I'm used to seeing it in my book, and because I would really love to delay an attack from a Cervere with Lion Savagery, or something similar. On reflection, I also believe that I do have enough control with the Force spells that I probably don't really need the vine as well.

I am really sold on Enchanter's Wardstone with this build... makes the Forcefield more of a pain to get rid of, and so many people seem to like Purge Magic these days that I feel it is almost required.

Mind Control and Second Forcefield: These didn't make the cut because of the spellbook costs and because I don't see using them all that often. Mind Control is Psychic and a lot of people seem to use nonliving creatures, thought you are right that is some cases it would be highly beneficial... a risk/reward thought is all there. I don't figure on using the first Forcefield too early anyway. Maybe I'm wrong with these though, so I'll keep them in mind.

Critical Strike isn't in there because of the hatred it generates from my usual opponent... we just think that it's a broken card, and because I already have a little piercing from Galvitar if I use the quick attack. This also is why I chose Power Strike over Piercing Strike... the built-in piercing option from Galvitar.

Knockdown was in there for intercepting creatures, but you're right... I can arrange to Force Pull / Push when attacking more often than not... so that probably will come out.

So I am thinking of the following changes:
Add Leviathan Scale (+2)
Swap Wychwood Ironvine for Colossus Belt (+0)
Add Wand of Healing (+2)
Add Battle Forge (+4)
Swap Force Hold for Force Crush (+1)
Swap Agony for Akiro's Favor (+0)
Drop one Thoughtspore (-2)
Drop one Dissolve (-2)
Drop the Knockdown (-1)
Drop the Tanglevine (-2)
Drop the Cheetah Speed (-2)

EDIT: I'm also pulling out the Minor Heal now in favor of a Wall of Thorns. I figure that will be more useful as I have a few other ways to heal, and one fewer Thoughtspore.

[DaveW]

Battle Report

I had a chance to playtest this idea tonight against a Druid. I did make all of the changes that I mentioned earlier, and found a way to add a couple of Fog Banks as well, so I thought I would repost the book with all of the changes before discussing the game.

8 Equipment (16 points)
1 Leviathan Scale Armor (2)
1 Elemental Cloak (2)
1 Colossus Belt (2)
1 Gauntlets of Strength (2)
1 Force Ring (1)
1 Galvitar (3)
1 Dancing Scimitar (2)
1 Wand of Healing (2)

7 Conjurations (16 points)
1 Suppression Orb (2)
1 Hand of Bim-Shalla (2)
1 Enchanter's Wardstone (2)
1 Battle Forge (4)
1 Wall of Thorns (2)
2 Fog Bank (4)

2 Creature (4 points)
2 Thoughtspore (4)

8 Attack (13 points)
2x Force Hammer (4)
2x Acid Ball (4)
1x Surging Wave (2)
3x Invisible Fists (3)

15 Incantations (29 points)
1x Force Wave (1)
2x Force Push (2)
1x Steal Equipment (3)
2x Dissolve (4)
1x Seeking Dispel (2)
2x Dispel (4)
1x Teleport (4)
1x Heal (4)
1x Purify (2)
1x Power Strike (1)
1x Shift Enchantment (1)
1x Disarm (1)

19 Enchantments (42 points)
1x Force Crush (3)
1x Mage Bane (2)
1x Rust (2)
1x Maim Wings (2)
1x Fumble (1)
1x Lion Savagery (2)
1x Mongoose Agility (2)
2x Bear Strength (4)
1x Circle of Lightning (4)
1x Regrowth (2)
1x Rhino Hide (2)
1x Hawkeye (2)
1x Dodge (1)
1x Arcane Ward (1)
1x Nullify (2)
1x Forcefield (4)
1x Akiro's Favor (2)
1x Vampirism (4)

About the game:

Caveat: My Druid opponent found out toward the beginning of the game that something that he was counting on in his book design wasn't able to work the way he intended. At one point in the early part of the game, he was putting Stranglevine on me in a zone where he also put an Astral Anchor... and the next turn he was trying to cast Fumble on me to keep me from slicing the vine to pieces with a double strike from Galvitar. The trouble is that Fumble doesn't work on Unmovable creatures, and the target of a Stranglevine gains the Unmovable trait... so that shouldn't have worked. (We discovered the error after he revealed it and we thought that I couldn't attack that turn... but soon discovered our mistake. We just said that it happened that way and went on with the game, since it was almost a full turn later that we figured it out.)

The game opened as follows:

My opponent opened with Vine Ring and Vine Tree (bonded), and I cast the Hand of Bim-Shalla and Battle Forge (the latter in my starting zone). We each moved one closer.

Turn two I deployed the Force Ring, gave myself an armor from the Hand, moved to near center, and cast Galvitar (with the discount) and Hawkeye (FD). He Stranglevined me and brought out the Wychwood Fairie.

Turn three, He cast an Astral Anchor (FD) in my zone and brought out an Asp. I deployed Gauntlets of Strength, gave myself a Melee +1 from the Hand, cast Rhino Hide (FD), and the sliced the Stranglevine to pieces with Galvitar's doublestrike and the +2 Melee buffs (ten dice total).

Turn four was when he cast the Fumble on me, so when I double attacked that turn, I only got in four dice on the new Stranglevine in error. I got tired of his casting enchantments on me, so I decided to hide behind Fog Banks (he was diagonal from me at the time) until I could finish the Stranglevine off and find a way to move closer to his tree.

Turn five I brought out the Enchanter's Wardstone, and put Magebane on him... I forget exactly what he did at that point... he cast Fellela around this time, I think. It seemed early on that he was always shorter in mana than he wanted to be.

On turn six, I finally got to range two of his tree and Force Hammered it for nine dice (counting Hawkeye), with the Force Ring mana discount.

It took me another several turns, and something like four or five more attack spells (a second Force Hammer, two Acid Balls, and one or two Invisible Fists... while getting Stranglevined one more time, which I decided to teleport out of to get into the tree's zone) and at least one melee attack on the stupid tree before I could kill it off... but it finally went down. By the time I had done this, he had Felella, three total Asps, and the Wychwood Fairie out. (I decided early on not to bring out my Thoughtspores at all this game as he had the Vinewhip Staff, which has reach.) It's interesting to note that he didn't have the mana to reveal the Astral Anchor that he placed in his tree's zone earlier to keep me from teleporting there.

Around this time, we each had something like 10-12 damage, he brought out the Lifetree, several of his creatures had 2-4 damage on them from hitting my Circle of Lightning (which got dispelled the following turn). I had only taken one Weak condition marker due to the Colossus Belt and use of Deflect... but I also had an Agony on me.

I spent a turn while maneuvering back toward my Battle Forge to Dispel the Agony and use a deployed Wand of Healing to remove the Weak token, and then took out the Lifetree with a doublestrike, at which time two of his Asps died (the extra two life from the tree was keeping them alive).

We were both hurt ~15-20 points around this time, with him taking damage from Magebane but healing with Regeneration from Barkskin... and me getting hit with whichever creatures and plants came out (a couple Corrosive Orchids and a Spitting Raptor eventually came out). I have all of my armor on by this point and was going to spend a turn using my Heal and putting on the Regrowth enchantment... but he cast Poisoned Blood on me the same turn that I was going to do that.

The game ended with me rolling well a couple of times in melee, and my putting on a Forcefield just in time to keep his attacks from potentially killing me. It was a good game.

Misc. thoughts about the book / game

• I never got to use Steal Enchantment, as he only ever equipped the Leaf Ring and Staff
• Hawkeye was very useful... in fact I almost wish I had more attack spells to use with it
• I wish I had a zone attack spell... Hail of Stones, most probably.
• The Force Ring gave me a discount about two turns in three (Galvitar, force attack spells and pushes, etc.)
• He didn't spend any time going after my conjurations, since he maximized his protection of the tree
• I felt that I had the bare minimum in terms of Dispels, Pushes, and Teleports... and might like one more of each
• Most useful card in general were Equipment and Attack Spells (I had only the Surging Wave left of these two types at the end)
• The Enchanter's Wardstone was worth bringing out... cost him six mana and might have helped to keep the Magebane on
• I had a few extra mana each turn early on, and was hovering in the 30-40 range most of the time after melee started

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Dave

[Puddnhead]

Nice Report, DaveW!

I have a few questions to help us think about a few cards in your book:

1) Did the Druid do any corroding?  I saw orchids in the report, but did your colossus belt keep the corrodes off of you? 

2) Was there ever a thought to using suppression orb when he had all of those snakes out there or were you so close that it didn't matter?

3) Was the Circle of Lightning useful enough with only one turn being active?  If so, would you include another?

4) Did the Fog Banks buy you enough time?

5) Regarding Steal Equipment, would you have rather had another dispel and another force push?

[DaveW]

Nice Report, DaveW!

I have a few questions to help us think about a few cards in your book:

1) Did the Druid do any corroding?  I saw orchids in the report, but did your colossus belt keep the corrodes off of you?

He cast two of the Corrosive Orchids. He mistimed the deployment of the first, as I was able to move out of the zone it was cast in before he could use it. It caused me a little maneuvering concern after that point (as it was in my far center zone), but I managed to avoid it the rest of the game. The second Orchid did get its attack in once or twice, and he got rid of my torso armor using the mist token. I believe he never got a Corrode in that way, though I do not remember whether the belt had any part in that.

He never cast an Acid Ball, perhaps because I had the belt on. The belt actually mostly helped me avoid the Weak conditions of the Asps two or three times (they rolled at least two sevens that I remember), so I was very happy with the Belt. He also never made any Hydro attacks, but I think that that might have been because of the Leviathan Scale Armor. (The armor and belt combo was very handy in this match-up.)

2) Was there ever a thought to using suppression orb when he had all of those snakes out there or were you so close that it didn't matter?

I had no action availability to put out the Orb, as I needed to use all of my actions to get to his Vine Tree, kill it, and then to get positioned to attack the Lifetree (three zones away). I knew that two of the snakes would die once I took out the tree. Once I did that, there really weren't enough creatures out to make it worthwhile. (And I was busy beating on the Mage full-time after the Lifetree died.)

My maneuvering was difficult -- I had to set up my prepared spells just to get me to the second tree. I had to have contingencies for overcoming the Stuck condition from his Staff, the hindering of the vine markers, and the potential for another Stranglevine or a Tanglevine (with perhaps a second Astral Anchor, which it turned out that he did have in his book). I ended up using a Force Push at times just to get to move two zones when I needed to do so.

3) Was the Circle of Lightning useful enough with only one turn being active?  If so, would you include another?

It was extremely useful... though I have to admit that I rolled very well in the round that it was used. Four of his creatures got condition markers and I did 10+ points of total damage to them.

I would love to have a second one... or something like a Hail of Stones... but I can't imagine where I would get another four spellbook points to put one of these two in.

4) Did the Fog Banks buy you enough time?

I only needed a round to stabilize my position. I had to either destroy the Stranglevine or Teleport out of it. With a FD enchantment in the zone, I had to presume that I wouldn't be able to Teleport. (This is where I lost a turn's attack as we misplayed the Fumble spell.)

To make matters a little worse... Fellela came out the same turn (I think) that I cast the walls... but I never was targeted by her with spells, from what I remember. Also, I was somewhat glad to be forced to remain in range of my Battle Forge one additional turn.

The main benefit that I received in putting out the Fog Banks was that I didn't have to be concerned about the Druid sticking me in place as they blocked line-of-sight to me. (The Druid was diagonal to me at the elbow of the two walls when I cast them.)

Also about the Fog Banks: I like to use them for blocking LoS of ranged units... especially war machines... which is the real purpose for having them in the book.

5) Regarding Steal Equipment, would you have rather had another dispel and another force push?

Absolutely not. As much as I would have liked another Dispel and another Force Push in this match-up, I know that there are going to be others where I am going to be glad to have the Steal Equipment for action management reasons.

[DaveW]

I finally did remove the two Fog Banks (-4), and I pulled out the Lion Savagery (-2) as well. I put in a Decoy (+1), Geyser (+2), and Elemental Wand (+4) in their place. I have one more sbp to remove... but not sure what I'm pulling out yet, though my first thought it to remove one of the Invisible Fists.

On the removal of the LS: I figure I have a bit of piercing already with Galvitar's quick melee attack, and I don't know how many times I'll get the Charge bonus against many opponents anyway.

I realize now that Decoy would have helped greatly against the Arcane Warded Astral Anchor situation, and I can see its use in other situations.

The Geyser fills a need for an Unavoidable attack to mix in with the melee attacks, Fists, and Acid Balls, and has possible utility in anti-flyer use and (as usual) putting out multiple burns at some point as well. Then the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to have a Wand to put it on.

I also still want to put in a zone attack spell somehow, but I don't see it happening... not unless I put it in instead of the Wand.

[DaveW]

OK, I fit in the area attack spell by removing one of the Dissolves and downgrading the Heal to a Minor Heal. I figure that I have healing from other sources (Vampirism, in particular), and can put the Minor Heal on a Thoughtspore if I want. I think the one point that I still needed to take out was the Fumble.

Here is the new version that I hope to test soon:

9 Equipment (20 points)
1x Leviathan Scale Armor (2)
1x Elemental Cloak (2)
1x Colossus Belt (2)
1x Gauntlets of Strength (2)
1x Force Ring (1)
1x Galvitar (3)
1x Dancing Scimitar (2)
1x Wand of Healing (2)
1x Elemental Wand (4)

5 Conjurations (12 points)
1x Suppression Orb (2)
1x Hand of Bim-Shalla (2)
1x Enchanter's Wardstone (2)
1x Battle Forge (4)
1x Wall of Thorns (2)

2 Creature (4 points)
2x Thoughtspore (4)

10 Attack (19 points)
1x Ring of Fire (4)
2x Force Hammer (4)
3x Invisible Fists (3)
2x Acid Ball (4)
1x Surging Wave (2)
1x Geyser (2)

14 Incantations (27 points)
1x Force Wave (1)
2x Force Push (2)
1x Steal Equipment (3)
1x Dissolve (2)
1x Seeking Dispel (2)
2x Dispel (4)
1x Teleport (4)
1x Minor Heal (2)
1x Purify (2)
1x Power Strike (1)
1x Shift Enchantment (1)
1x Disarm (1)

18 Enchantments (40 points)
1x Force Crush (3)
1x Mage Bane (2)
1x Rust (2)
1x Maim Wings (2)
1x Mongoose Agility (2)
2x Bear Strength (4)
1x Circle of Lightning (4)
1x Regrowth (2)
1x Rhino Hide (2)
1x Hawkeye (2)
1x Decoy (1)
1x Dodge (1)
1x Arcane Ward (1)
1x Nullify (2)
1x Forcefield (4)
1x Akiro's Favor (2)
1x Vampirism (4)

[zot]

   would you consider the elemental wand redundant as that is why you included the ts creatures?

[Mystery]

drop something, you need more dissolve/dispel

10 attack spells and an elemental wand?